Message in a Bottle - Nicholas Sparks [26]
Theresa began twisting a strand of hair around her finger.
“And my column?”
“Don’t worry about it. We still have the one column you wrote that we didn’t use because we published the letter instead. After that, we can run a couple of repeats from past years. Most papers hadn’t picked up your column then, so they probably won’t know the difference.”
“You make this sound so easy.”
“It is easy. The hard part is going to be finding him. But I think these letters have some information we can use to help you. What do you say we make a few phone calls and do a little hunting on the computer?”
They were both silent for a long time.
“Okay,” Theresa said finally. “But I hope I don’t end up regretting this.”
“So,” Theresa asked Deanna, “where do we begin?”
She pulled her chair around to the other side of Deanna’s desk.
“First off,” Deanna began, “let’s begin with what we’re pretty sure about. First, I think it’s fair to say that his name actually is Garrett. That’s how he signed all the letters, and I don’t think he would have bothered using a name other than his own. He might have done so if it was only one letter, but with three letters, I’m fairly confident that it’s either his first name, or even his middle name. Either way, it’s the name he’s called by.”
“And,” Theresa added, “he’s probably in Wilmington or Wrightsville Beach, or another community close by.”
Deanna nodded. “All his letters talk about the ocean or ocean themes, and of course, that’s where he throws the bottles. From the tone of the letters, it sounds like he writes them when he gets lonely or when he’s thinking about Catherine.”
“That’s what I thought. He didn’t seem to mention any special occasions in the letters. They talked about his day-to-day life, and what he was going through.”
“Okay, good,” Deanna said, nodding. She was getting more excited as they went on. “There was a boat that was mentioned…”
“Happenstance,” Theresa said. “The letter said that they restored the boat and used to sail together. So, it’s probably a sailboat.”
“Write that down,” Deanna said. “We may be able to find out more about that with a couple of calls from here. Maybe there’s a place that registers boats by name. I think I can call the paper down there to find out. Was there anything else in the second letter?”
“Not that I can tell. But the third letter has a little bit more information. From what he writes, two things stand out.”
Deanna chimed in. “One, that Catherine has indeed passed away.”
“And also that it looks like he owns a scuba-diving shop where he and Catherine used to work.”
“That’s another thing to write down. I think we can find out more about that from up here as well. Anything else?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, it’s a good beginning. This might be easier than we think. Let’s start making some calls.”
The first place Deanna called was the Wilmington Journal, the newspaper that served the area. She identified herself and asked to speak with someone who was familiar with boating. After a couple of transfers, she found herself speaking with Zack Norton, who covered sportfishing and other ocean sports. After explaining that she wanted to know if there was a place that kept a registry of boat names, she was told that there wasn’t.
“Boats are registered with an identification number, almost like cars,” he said in a slow drawl, “but if you have the name of the person, you might be able to find out the name of the boat on the form if it’s listed. It’s not a required piece of information, but a lot of people put it down anyway.” Deanna scribbled the words “Boats not registered by